Buffalo

There's no escaping the 1980's references of this season's trends, and while the obvious influences like Alaia, Claude Montana and Herve Leger have been much discussed, there''s one fashion player from the decade that you may have overlooked: Ray Petri.

In the early eighties London's alternative fashion scene was in full swing and Scottish born, Australian raised Ray Petri was right at the centre of it. He had found his niche dressing the models on menswear fashion shoots and would oversee the whole look and feel of the shots as well as the clothes - in fact he was arguably one of the first stylists. His signature style was, at the time, ground breaking and paved the way for the fashion spreads that we see today. He was heavily influenced by London's sub-cultures and would mix high fashion with vintage finds and urban pieces. He used teenage models and boys from ethnic minorities - something of a rarity in that era. The look was super tough and mean - combat boots, bomber jackets and trench coats, sharp shirts and even sharper tailoring and he favoured a style that was classic and androgynous rather than trend led. Before long he was being employed by the likes of the Face, Arena and i.d and was forming a collective of his most dedicated followers which he named Buffalo after a range of influences - Vivienne Westwood's collection, Bob Marley's song 'Buffalo Soldier', and a bouncer at his favourite club in Paris. Some of his gang are still familiar faces; stylist and accessories designer Judy Blame, singer Neneh Cherry (who penned the song 'Buffalo Stance' about the group) and a teenage Naomi Campbell, who used to help Petri at his regular jumble sales.

Sadly Ray Petri died of AIDs in 1989 but one look at the glossy spreads of the hippest and coolest magazines or the latest collections on the menswear catwalks - or the women's collections for that matter - is enough to see quite how far reaching his influence has been and how much fashion has to thank him for.

By Emma Sells